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ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



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PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 

1890. 



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ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



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PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1890. 






Copyright, 1890, by J. B. Lippincott Company. 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



Lincoln, Abraham, sixteenth president of the 
United States, was born in Hardin county, Kentucky, 
1 2th February 1809. He was descended in the sixth 
generation from Samuel Lincoln, who emigrated from 
Norwich in England to Massachusetts about 1638. 
Samuel's grandson removed to Berks county, Penn- 
sylvania, and died there in 1735- The famil y histor >^ 
henceforward marks the advancing wave of settle- 
ments, first south-westward, skirting the eastern slope 
of the Alleghanies, then surmounting these moun- 
tains and spreading over the Ohio valley. Samuel's 
great-grandson rested in Virginia ; his son, Abraham, 
followed the pioneer Daniel Boone to Kentucky, and 
while clearing a farm in the forest was killed by In- 
dians in 1784. Abraham's son, Thomas, then but 
six years old, grew up without education, and in 1806 
married Nancy Hanks of the same pioneer stock- 
Abraham, the future president, was their second child, 
but lost his mother before he was ten years old. His 
restless father had crossed the Ohio in 18 16, and 
made a new home in the forests of Indiana, just be- 
fore its admission as a state. In 1 8 19 he brought 



4 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

from Kentucky a second wife, Sarah (Bush) Johnston, 
a worthy woman, who trained her step-children as 
faithfully as her own. Abraham learned the little 
that was taught in the backwoods schools, and was 
employed in rough farm-work until at the age of nine- 
teen he took on a flat-boat a cargo to New Orleans. 
His first close view of slavery made a lasting impres- 
sion on his mind. 

When Lincoln was twenty-one his father removed 
to central Illinois, where the son assisted in felling 
trees, building another log-cabin, and splitting rails 
for fences. After a second trading voyage to New 
Orleans he returned to be a clerk in a country store 
at New Salem, Illinois. When the Indian chief Black 
Hawk disturbed the northern part of that state in 
1832 Lincoln served a few weeks as captain in an 
uneventful campaign. Being defeated as a candidate 
for the legislature, he purchased a small store, but its 
failure left him burdened with debt. However, he 
was made village postmaster, and also deputy to the 
county surveyor, and the light duties allowed him 
time to study law and grammar. Elected to the legis- 
lature in 1834, he served until 1842, when he declined 
further nomination. He had become leader of the 
Whigs, and was influential in having the state capital 
removed in 1839 from Vandalia to Springfield, where 
he had fixed his residence. Thither, too, came Mary 
Todd (181 8-82), the daughter of Robert Todd of Lex- 
ington, Kentucky, and in November 1842 she was 
married to the rising lawyer. In 1846 Lincoln was 
elected to congress, but his service was limited to a 
single term. Professional work was steadily drawing 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 5 

him from interest in politics when in 1854 Stephen 
A. Douglas, by his Kansas-Nebraska bill, repealed 
the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and reopened 
the question of slavery in the territories. The bill 
roused intense feeling throughout the North, and 
Douglas resolved to defend his position in a speech 
at the state fair at Springfield in October. Lincoln, 
invited by his Whig friends to reply, delivered on the 
same day a speech which first fully revealed his power 
as a political debater. Against his wish ' Honest Abe' 
was then elected to the legislature, and the Whigs of 
that body endeavoured to send him to the United 
States senate, but finally at his request joined in elect- 
ing Lyman Trumbull, an anti-Douglas Democrat. 
When the Republican party was organised in 1856 to 
oppose the extension of slavery Lincoln was its most 
prominent leader in Illinois. At its first national con- 
vention in the same year the delegates of his state 
presented him as a nominee for the vice-presidency. 
But he did not attain a national reputation until 1858. 
Then Douglas, seeking re-election to the United 
States senate, began a canvass of Illinois in advocacy 
of his views of 'popular sovereignty.' Lincoln, as 
candidate for the same position, arranged with Doug- 
las for a series of debates. The contest attracted the 
attention of the whole country; but though the gen- 
eral verdict was in favour of Lincoln and his cause, 
the peculiar arrangement of the legislative districts 
gave Douglas the immediate advantage, and secured 
his election. 

In another memorable oration in the Cooper Union, 
New York, in February i860, Lincoln proved that 



6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the founders of the republic had desired the restric- 
tion of slavery. In May of that year the Republican 
convention was held in Chicago, and on the third 
ballot nominated him for the presidency. The Demo- 
cratic party held its convention in Charleston, but 
was unable to agree on a candidate. Douglas was 
nominated by one wing, Breckinridge by the other. 
After an intensely exciting campaign Lincoln re- 
ceived a popular vote of 1,866,462; Douglas, 1,375,- 
157; Breckinridge, 847,953; and Bell, 590,631. Of 
the electors Lincoln had 180 ; Breckinridge, 72 ; Bell, 
39; and Douglas, 12. 

The pro-slavery leaders forthwith put in execution 
their plans for the secession of their states. South 
Carolina moved first, and with the six Gulf states 
formed, in February 186 1, the Confederate States of 
America. Lincoln, leaving Springfield on 1st Feb- 
ruary, passed through the principal northern cities, 
making brief addresses at various points, and reach- 
ing Washington on the 24th. His inaugural address 
on 4th March declared the Union perpetual, argued 
the futility of secession, expressed his determination 
that the laws should be faithfully executed in all the 
states, deprecated the impending evils, and made a 
touching appeal to all friends of the Union. Of the 
seven members of Lincoln's cabinet four had been 
Democrats, three Whigs ; two were from border 
slave-states. The chief places were given to W. H. 
Seward of New York (secretary of state), and Salmon 
P. Chase of Ohio (secretary of the treasury). Edwin 
M. Stanton was made secretary of war in 1862. 

Qn April 12, 1861, the Confederate general Beau- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. y 

regard attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston harbour. 
The civil war being thus commenced, Lincoln called 
a special session of congress, summoned 75,000 
militia for three months, and ordered the enlistment 
of 65,000 regulars for three years. He proclaimed a 
blockade of the southern ports, and endeavoured to 
make it effective. The Southern Confederacy soon 
had control of eleven states, and put in the field 
100,000 men. The first important battle was fought 
at Bull Run, Virginia, July 21, 1861, and resulted in 
a disgraceful rout of the Union army. Further 
account of the military and naval events of the war 
belongs to general history. The struggle which 
sanguine statesmen predicted could be ended in a few 
months was prolonged over four years, with dreadful 
sacrifices of men and means. Foreign intervention, 
which seemed imminent at the outset, was with 
difficulty averted. After sixteen months, in which 
the disasters to the Union army had outnumbered 
the victories, Lincoln declared to Horace Greeley the 
line of his conduct : ' My paramount object is to save 
the Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery. 
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, 
I would do it; if I could save it by freeing all the 
slaves, I would do it ; and if I could do it by freeing 
some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.' 
One month later the time had come for decision, and 
on September 22, 1862, just after McClellan's victory 
at Antietam, Lincoln proclaimed that on and after 
January I, 1863, all slaves in states or parts of states 
then in rebellion should be free. On the following 
New-year's Day the final proclamation of emancipa- 



3 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tion was made. This greatest achievement of his 
administration, wrung from him by the exigencies of 
civil war, was completed and made immutable by the 
passage of the Thirteenth Amendment of the Con- 
stitution, which he planned and urged, though it was 
not fully ratified until December 1865. 

In July 1863 Grant's capture of Vicksburg restored 
to the Union full control of the Mississippi River, 
while Meade's defeat of Lee at Gettysburg destroyed 
the last hope of the Confederates to transfer the seat 
of war north of the Potomac. In November of that 
year, at the dedication of the National Cemetery at 
Gettysburg, Lincoln delivered a brief address, closing 
with these words : ' We here highly resolve that these 
dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, 
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and 
that government of the people, by the people, for the 
people, shall not perish from the earth.' 

General Grant was called to the chief command of 
the Union army in March 1864, and entered upon 
that policy of persistent attrition of the Confederate 
forces which finally brought peace. In the Repub- 
lican Convention at Baltimore in June Lincoln was 
unanimously nominated for a second term. The 
Democrats at Chicago in August declared the war 
a failure, yet nominated General McClellan. In 
November Lincoln received of the popular vote 
2,216,000, and McClellan 1,800,000; of the electoral 
votes Lincoln had 212, McClellan 21. In his second 
inaugural address, in March 1865, Lincoln rose above 
the ordinary range of such occasions, and like an in- 
spired prophet set forth the profound moral signify 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. g 

cance of the tremendous war which he saw drawing 
to a close. A month later he had entered Richmond, 
from which Grant had driven Davis and Lee. Lincoln 
returned to Washington to consider the new problems 
presented by the overthrow of the Confederacy. But 
his work was already finished. While seeking re- 
laxation with his family at Ford's Theatre he was 
assassinated by J. Wilkes Booth, an actor, and died 
on the next morning, April 15, 1865. The national 
rejoicing over the return of peace was turned into 
grief for the martyred president. The whole civilised 
world joined in expression of sorrow for his fate. 

Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches in height, with long 
limbs and large hands and feet, dark complexion, 
broad, high forehead, deep-set gray eyes, and coarse 
black hair. He was slender, wiry and strong, mild 
and patient, fair and direct in speech and action, 
scorning all tricks and subterfuges, steadfast in prin- 
ciple, sympathetic and charitable. He was a man of 
strict morality, abstemious, and familiar with the 
Bible, though not a professed member of any church. 
His public life was devoted to the good of his fellow- 
men, and his fame is established as the saviour of 
his country and the liberator of a race. 

Of his four sons, Robert Todd Lincoln, born 
August 1, 1843, was the only one to reach manhood. 
He was secretary of war in the years 1881-85, an ^ 
was appointed United States minister to England in 
1889. 

See Arnold, The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1885) ; Herndon and 
Weik, The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 
(3 vols. 1889); Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History 
(published in The Century, 1886-90). 



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